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ANNOUNCEMENT: MR BIFFO'S FOUND FOOTAGE

6/10/2016

24 Comments

 
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Apologies for this week on Digi2000 still being a little Block Party-heavy, and light on the usual gaming nonsense. It's a consequence of my brain still being a little Block Party-heavy... and remaining profoundly exhausted from Saturday - and the previous few weeks. 

But! Lots of you voted or left comments over whether I should have a crack at crowd-funding something in the Biffovision/Digifest ads vein. Enough of you have come back to generously offer your support that I've decided I'm going to give it a go. 

And it's going to be called this: 'Mr Biffo's Found Footage'.

That's probably all you need to know at this point in time. The name kind of tells you exactly what it is. But I'll tell you a bit more anyway. I'm nice like this: that.
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THE IDEA
So. The idea is this: each of the six ten-minute episodes will feature another volume from my vast collection of VHS found footage tapes. That means I'm not just confined to ads, but we'll have snippets of old TV shows, home videos, music clips, cartoons - basically, anything goes.

The inspiration was staring me in the face: I've got a copy of some stupid sketches I filmed when I was at school. They were recorded onto a tape by our computer studies teacher - and between the sketches, it keeps dropping back into 1970 Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter, or other clips he'd filmed around the school. It sort of added to the woozy, destabilising, surrealism - the way the tape would glitch, and flicker, and unrelated images would interrupt one another.

Additionally, around that age, I used to make a spoof newspaper called The Gat, which was partly put together by cutting up real newspapers to make something new. Much like how the Reversible Sedgewick ad was spliced together from about six different sources.

NOW KNOWN
For what is now to be known as Mr Biffo's Found Footage, I wanted to find a format which held it all together, but also allowed me to be completely free-wheeling in the style of a sketch show. And then a wiser soul than I suggested that the rough, retro, glitchy, VHS-style itself is the format. Which is when it clicked into place. It's sort of what I've always done, and seems to suit what I do.

When I've done Digi fake ads in teletext over the last few months, it seemed like the outdated medium itself added something. When doing the videos for Digifest, I wanted to find a way to recreate that retro, lo-fi look that teletext offers, as I thought it'd enhance the funnies. Not least because we were going to be having a talk by Jason Robertson at Block Party, on retrieving teletext pages from VHS tapes. I thought I'd offer the original footage that was on those tapes.

So, for all the reasons above, I'm sticking with that style for Mr Biffo's Found Footage, and hopefully be able to go all out with it.

Unfortunately, that does somewhat risk comparisons to the likes of Tim & Eric - not least given that Digi-esque humour isn't a million miles away from what they do. That's just something I'll have to swallow, though, and hope that within it I can just stay true to what I've always done.

I've been here before. I couldn't see the comparison, but when we did Biffovision we had people saying we'd ripped off Look Around You. Which was ironic, as Peter Serafinowicz once told me that Look Around You was influenced by Digitiser. Ultimately, we all owe a debt to Monty Python - which Biffovision did shamelessly pay homage to. The "10 points to Gryffindor" cutaways were even filmed just feet from where they shot the Fish-Slapping Dance.

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KICK-OFF
So, hopefully next week I'll be going live with a Kickstarter campaign.

I'm keeping the threshold low - we've not properly priced it up yet, but it'll be around £3,500 for six episodes.

Which, by any estimation of TV budgets, is eye-wateringly low, but I'm not sure I'll be able to break beyond the Digitiser2000 audience.

​If we can blow through that, though, I'll be very happy, and it'll obviously expand the scope of what I'm intending to do.

Talking of Digi2000 - Found Footage will be a sister project. I know it feels like I'm constantly putting my hand out asking for money, but our Digi2000 donor fund will remain open - and Found Footage won't take away from Digi2000 in any shape or form. It'll continue as it always has done these past two years.

A lot of you have indicated that you don't want rewards, and would rather I invested all the money you give back into the project itself.

With that in mind, I will most likely keep any physical rewards to a minimum - but will be offering things like credits, a chance to be in a sketch, tickets to a London premier/launch party, behind-the-scenes clips... And probably a DVD for those who want it (no point in doing a Blu-Ray given the lo-fi nature of the footage).  

So, thanks to everyone who said they'd support this - I'm doing it purely because so many of you seem to want more. It's genuinely exciting, and I can't wait to do this: get going with this: it. 

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
​FEEDBACK NEEDED: WOULD YOU BE PREPARED TO HELP FUND A SERIES OF BIFFOVISION?
​
QUIZ-ME-DO: LIVE!
​
DIGIFEST: JUST THE ADS
24 Comments
Waynan The Barbarian
6/10/2016 11:01:48 am

Genuinely excited by this, Biffo! Hope you get the £3,500 you need and more!

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DrDagless
6/10/2016 11:29:01 am

Good luck! *fingers crossed*

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combat_honey
6/10/2016 11:41:06 am

This is very exciting. Will happily donate when the Kickstarter is live.

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Rorchord
6/10/2016 12:21:57 pm

The bassist out of Radiohead has let himself go.

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colincidence link
8/10/2016 02:59:53 am

Guitarist, you despot

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John Veness
6/10/2016 12:23:01 pm

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John Veness
6/10/2016 12:24:22 pm

Whoops, submitted too soon! I'm in, and good luck.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
6/10/2016 12:49:33 pm

Ignore the "it's like Tim and Eric" stuff. It's very difficult to have a format or topic nobody else has done. The Simpsons, MadTV and Ren and Stimpy did absurd comedy ads and infomercials before they did. It's all about what you do to make it your own.

Also I love Tim and Eric, but while they might have Hollywood contacts, they don't have Goujon Jon. Seriously, more of him please. His delivery absolutely slays me.

As do his goujons.

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Mr Biffo
6/10/2016 12:57:42 pm

Don't you worry... there'll be plenty more Goujon John...

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Todd
6/10/2016 04:22:41 pm

Will I ever be able to pronounce Goujon the right way again?

Mr Mister
7/10/2016 08:47:24 am

From here forward I am purposefully pronouncing Goujon in the style of Goujon John. I know I will feel compelled to order Goujons if I ever see the word on a restaurant menu...

Nocturne
10/10/2016 02:59:31 pm

I'm still too scared to pronounce Goujon out of fear of getting it wrong. I've just been screaming breaded chicken sticks at people and pointing at the menu in a frantic fashion. It's worked out so far.

James of the North
6/10/2016 12:52:04 pm

I can imagine some people preferring an actual VHS tape instead of a DVD. Not me personally, but y'know. More authentic and that.

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Cinco Boy
6/10/2016 01:08:20 pm

"Peter Serafinowicz once told me that Look Around You was influenced by Digitiser"

That's pretty awesome. Did you ever watch his sketch show? He did a lot of piss taking of crappy products and commercials. Part work magazines were a particular target - had one called Elephants & Trains magazine that is very reminiscent of Turts & Phants.

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Mr Biffo
6/10/2016 01:15:41 pm

I saw some of it... but I confess that I didn't watch all of it, because I was at one point down to write on it, but all my sketches were dismissed as too dark. The Biffovision lollipop man sketch was one I pitched to him, which got rejected. So then it became a bit too painful to watch. Don't remember Elephants & Trains, but I've caught up with Brian Butterfield since, which is brilliant. And I love his Billion Jokes book.

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Cinco Boy
6/10/2016 03:29:00 pm

Shame, I'd love to have seen Biffo+Serafinowicz.

For a digest of some of the best bits check out the youtube video "parodies of TV adverts", it's a compilation of his spoof ads.

Clive Peppard
6/10/2016 01:45:45 pm

I'll raid the piggy bank for this

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Count von Von
6/10/2016 03:38:02 pm

£3500 for six episodes? Is there some witchcraft involved there? Or are they each 30 seconds long...

The chance to act in a sketch sounds tasty! Alas there's a small ocean between me and the UK! I look forward to what you come up with.

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Mr Biffo
6/10/2016 03:42:43 pm

Well, I'm basing that on the one I did for Digifest. That's still probably cutting corners, but I'm not confident I'll be able to raise more. But who knows? It's not like there's a cut off - just a bare minimum...!

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Paulvw
6/10/2016 05:21:53 pm

Excellent! Best of luck with this.

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sunteam link
6/10/2016 05:48:32 pm

'kin-A!

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roboJamie
6/10/2016 07:19:07 pm

Nice one, will take a look at the kickstarter once it's up. The rewards structure sounds perfect - it's things people will want, but with little additional material cost to the project so more can be spent on that amazing Mr T lookylikey.

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MattL
7/10/2016 12:44:47 am

Excellent news! I'm very excited about this. Best of luck with the fundraising; I hope you'll comfortably beat that target.

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Dan link
8/10/2016 10:13:17 pm

I vant a doovde. In zat case, count me in for £25 or so! My offer of help (art, voice over, anything else) is still good too. :)

PS I just remembered that the Celeb Ghostel sketch reminded me of the 'Ghosts' episode of Look Around You (S1). I showed it at a uni film screening in about 2007-8. :)

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